The Prisons tab allows you to track info for each specific prison, including mailing addresses, physical addresses, and book/mailing restrictions at each prison. This is also where you can maintain the prison database by merging duplicate prisons and deleting prisons that don’t exist.

Prisons tab overview

Here’s the view when you open the Prisons tab. It’s a list of every single prison on file in alphabetical order. You can use the purple search box at right to filter by state or to search by name or address. (Searching by address can help you find duplicate prison entries.)

Prison Records

Here’s the record of a prison. (I made this one up.) You can see the name, address, state, telephone number, and any notes that people have entered about this prison. Under the notes are the prison restrictions on mail or books. Below this information is a list of every package sent inside this prison.

To edit the record, click the Edit Prison Information button.

Editing Prison Information

Here’s the view to edit the prison record for your facility. You don’t actually need to fill out the “City” field but make sure you select a state. The phone number can be tricky to enter right but make sure it has a plus sign in front.

Here you can add any notes you need people to know about this prison.

Below is a list of restrictions. It is VERY LONG. Please read them carefully and select the ones that apply. Most restrictions will already be here.

Saving changes to the Prison Record

If you don’t see your restriction listed, you can enter it here by clicking on “Create New Restrictions.” PLEASE, make SURE that it isn’t already here because there’s no way to delete them and this list is already so long. There are already duplicates. Please, check. Most restrictions are already here.

After you make ANY changes to the prison record, make sure you scroll to the bottom of the page and hit the “Save Changes” button or they will be lost.